End relaxes ‘Monk’ star

OBSESSED: The final episode of ‘Monk’ airs tonight. As the title character, Tony Shalhoub earned seven Emmy nods.

Viewers have waited eight seasons to find out who killed Monk’s wife.

They’ll find out tonight when the series “Monk” airs its final hour at 9 p.m. on USA Network.

Tony Shalhoub, the Emmy award-winning actor who plays the obsessive-compulsive title character, waited to find out as well.

“As we got closer, (the writers) would say, ‘When would you like to know?’ and I said, ‘Don’t tell me. I don’t want to have that information because Monk doesn’t have that information until the very last minute,’ so I said I can be patient,” Shalhoub said earlier this week in a telephone interview from New York.

“When I read the finale, I was really moved and very satisfied. It exceeded my expectations. I thought it was going to be tricky to pull off. It’s a daunting episode emotionally. I discovered, once I was in it, that it all started to come to me. I had been loaded up for eight years.”

When Shalhoub accepted the role almost a decade ago, many questioned why he would work on a little-known cable network.

“I was basing my decision on the material, not on the venue,” he said. “If this material is as good as I think it is and we can execute as well as I think we can, then it should stand on its own and people will find this network and gravitate to it. That was a pretty reasonable gamble and it worked out.”

That’s a bit of an understatement. Shalhoub has been nominated for an Emmy seven times for his role and won three times. The highly rated series established USA as a competitive cable network and changed the TV landscape.

“I don’t know if (the show) has had a single-handed effect,” Shalhoub said. “It was certainly part of the transition to the rise in cable and characters like this kind of flawed character. Think of ‘House’ and think of ‘The Shield’ and all of these shows where the main character has large issues to overcome or obstacles to push against. It feels good to have been part of that early going.”

Over the years, the Wisconsin native has heard from many of the series’ devoted fans, particularly those who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder or know someone who does.

“They really embraced the show. The show and the character allows them to laugh at themselves,” he said. “And in a way, the character destigmatizes the disorder because Monk is so successful at what he does and he’s so smart and so talented. Not only did he not get cured but the disorder itself enhanced his ability to do his job.”

Shalhoub returns to Broadway in the spring to star in a revival of “Lend Me a Tenor” opposite his wife Brooke Adams and Anthony LaPaglia. He doesn’t rule out revisiting his most famous character in the future.

“We’ve talked about a ‘Monk’ feature. We’ve been talking about that for a long time. The cast would love to do it. But there’s really nothing hard and fast in the pipeline.”

How does he hope viewers will remember the defective detective?

“I hope they come away with this idea that there is such a thing as change and sometimes things don’t always have to stay exactly the way they are forever,” he said. “I’m a believer that you just keep swimming upstream. And I think Monk, in spite of all his whining and belly-aching, ultimately he did that, too. There’s some forward movement in his life, and I would love for people to come away with that idea.”